


Judge of Inklings

by StutteryPrince



Category: Splatoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StutteryPrince/pseuds/StutteryPrince
Summary: Agent 5 had never gone up against an enemy like this before. He was much more powerful than any octoling she had ever fought in her life. He had technology she had never seen before! But if Agent 5 knew one thing, it was that she was gonna splat him into next week!





	Judge of Inklings

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a friend over on Twitter! None of the characters mentioned belong to me.

Agent 5 hummed as they spawned into the boss arena, looking around at the lab like area. The voice of General Fishbones crackled in her headset and she cringed for a moment, tapping the earphones to get them to work.

 

“Agent 5? Agent 5, kid, can you hear me?”

 

“Loud and clear, General.”

 

“Be careful in here, 5. This guy is no laughing matter.”

 

Agent 5 turned to the sound of buzzing and jumped up to grab the weapon crate as it flew by her, popping it open and looking over the disassembled shooter parts. As she began to click the weapon together, General Fishbones began talking once more.

 

“Once you really get in there, I won’t be able to talk to you anymore. This crazy lab has a frequency blocker. You’ll have to learn as you fight, got it?”

 

Agent 5 propped the finished gun against on her hip, nodding even though she was only half sure that her General could see her determined face.

 

“Got it!”

 

“Good luck, kid. You got this!”

 

Agent 5 nodded to herself before jumping onto the launch pad, landing with a heavy thump as she readjusted the gun in her hands. She took slow and careful steps forward, looking around with a sliver of uncertainty as she got a closer look at her surroundings now that she was right up with them. In the darkness, she could make out what looked like wires and machine parts, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it.

 

Lights suddenly flooded the lab purple, highlighting and revealing everything around Agent 5. Locked in cages were Octarians of all kinds, all screaming and screeching, but the reason for all the noise was lost on her as her focus turned to the only two green lights in the entire place.

 

The sudden, nearly deafening crackle of electricity brought Agent 5’s already panicked attention up above where the green lights were and her jaw dropped when she saw the source of the noise. Panels flipped up and revealed  _ five _ zapfish trapped within glass balls, shining like light bulbs and keening for help. Before Agent 5 could even begin to claim that she would set them free, the panels flipped back down just as fast they opened and the green lights twinkled threateningly. There was the familiar scratchy grinding of an arena starting up, but the noise that followed wasn’t the roar of a Great Octoweapon she had come to expect.

  
_ “AHAHAHAHAHA!!!” _

Agent 5 shielded her eyes as the lab rumbled with laughter, lighting up completely and making it so she could actually see who she was up against. Inside a booth above the ground, stood a tall figure wrapped up in a trench coat covered in ink stains, his eyes specs of purple in a sea of green and the calm, seemingly ever present smile on his face was unnerving to say the least.

 

“W-Who,” Agent 5 cleared her throat to rid her voice of its frightened stutter, “Who are you?”

 

“I am Octodev, young Inkling. Judge of Inklings. Inklings such as yourself.”

 

Agent 5 didn’t say a word, instead aiming the shooter at him, keeping both eyes on this “Octodev” character. Octodev chuckled lightly before pressing a button on the board he was leaning against. 

 

Agent 5 would never admit to the yelp of fear and surprise she let out when the boxes holding up all the other cages suddenly fell open, allowing a few Octarians to stagger out from a couple of the boxes, but they were unlike any Octarians she had ever seen before. Their middles were wrapped in metal bands and their eyes were the exact same as Octodev’s, who was smiling a little more smugly than before. There were large screws in their backs and a single wheel underneath them to allow them to get around, but there eyes were blank and almost emotionless, almost as if they were looking passed her and not at her.

 

“What...What is this,” Agent 5 demanded, looking back up at Octodev.

 

“This...,” he paused to chuckle once,  _ “Is your judgement day.” _

 

Octodev fiddled with something on the board.

 

_ “Attack!” _

 

Agent 5 didn’t have time to think as the Octarains came at her and she raised her arms to defend herself, but when the Octarian stopped short before her, she slowly lowered them to look at it.

 

“Uh…”

 

_ “THREE. TWO. ONE.” _

 

Agent 5’s eyes widened as it hit her just what was about to happen.

 

“Wait-!”

 

But it was already too late. The Octarian exploded, coating Agent 5 in more than enough ink to make her explode and send her back to the spawn point above ground. She sighed heavily and rolled her shoulders, gripping the shooter in her hands tighter as her eyes flared with determination.

 

“Alright then. Let’s try that again.”

 

Agent 5 jumped onto the launch pad and the moment she hit the ground, she threw herself backwards and out of the way of the oncoming Octarians, watching a few of them explode without her in the way.

 

“Bring it on!”

 

Agent 5 cocked her shooter and raced forward, shooting at them just as she would any other slimy Octarian, but when the ink simply rolled off them and pushed them back, she felt her panic begin to rise again. 

 

“Ah, what do I do? What do I do?”

 

_ “THREE. TWO. ONE.” _

 

“AH!”

 

Agent 5 moved as fast as she could, luckily get out of the way of the explosion, but cringing at the sting of Octarian ink as flecks of it hit the back of her head. Though she was safe from that explosion, another Octarian was coming at her just as fast as the other.

 

“AH! What do I-They don’t-I can’t-YOU KNOW WHAT?”

 

Agent 5 cocked her shooter again and just started firing at the Octarian in frustrated confusion, pushing it back and running at it at the same pace, shoving it back into the dark box it had come out of. The Octarian began to short circuit from all the ink she had hit it with, jerking and crackling before it began to swell.

 

“Oh jeez.”

 

Agent 5 dove into the ink trail she had made, swimming away before jumping back out and looking at the malfunctioning Octarian. Everything seemed to stop before the Octarian exploded, destroying the box it was ad collapsing the rest of the cages on top of it. Octodev grunted as the lab shook, gripping the board to keep from falling over.

 

“Watch it!”

 

Agent 5 looked at destruction the explosion caused, then at the Octarians slowly making their way to her. She grinned up at Octodev, who was glaring at her despite his smile.

 

“Don’t you d-”

 

“WOOMY!”   
  


Ignoring Octodev’s demands for her to stop, Agent 5 aimed her nozzle at the closest Octarian to her, firing as fast as the gun would allow her to and pushing it back into the nearest box she could get in. She jumped backwards and watched with delight as it exploded and collapsed another set of cages, whipping around to face the remaining three boxes. 

 

Agent 5 dove into the ink she had left behind, popping up behind the confused Octarians, throwing down a bomb. She watched as they spun and scattered in different directions and she wasted no time splattering them with ink, cramming them into the boxes one by one and relishing in the successful noise of them short circuiting and blowing up the boxes. Octodev growled as the rest of the cages collapsed and the Octarians inside deactivated, the creatures falling limp as his booth swayed dangerously.

 

“Is that all you got, Dev?”

 

Octodev glared down at her, slamming his fist down on a button on his board. The lab rumbled and the panels above the booth opened again, revealing the zapfish before they slammed shut once more. The booth crackled with blue electricity for a moment and Agent 5 could have sworn she heard the zapfish cry out.

 

“Quit destroying my lab and accept. Your…” The grinding noise began to fill the air again.  _ “Judgement!” _

 

The lab rumbled as Octodev shouted, only evaporating the ink she had put on the ground and signaling the start of the second phase of the fight between them. Agent 5 looked around as she inked the floor to make a path for herself, her gun poised and ready to fire at any more Octarians he had to throw at her, but she grew more and more anxious as the silence went on without a single attack.

 

That’s when she noticed the panel glowing beneath her feet and the popping in the air around her.

 

_ “AAAAAH!” _

 

Agent 5 shrieked as electricity coursed through her body, bringing tears to her eyes and forcing her to her knees. She was paralyzed for a moment, trying to shake off the leftover feeling of being zapped even after it was over. She heard the crackle of electricity behind her and weakly looked over her shoulder, watching as blue trails of electricity zipped down two metal tentacles and into the floor below.

 

“Oh, just splat me…”

 

Agent 5 forced herself to her feet, trying to think on her feet as she watched the floor start to glow again. She quickly inked the nearest surface that would allow her to, scrambling up it and cringing at the sound of the electricity being discharged. She dropped back down to the floor, though she didn’t take on her humanoid form and stayed in the ink, both to fill her tank and because she was scared out of her mind.

 

Agent 5 waited for the floor to discharge the electric current and turn her into calamari, but when it never came, she chanced peeking out from the ink puddle she had hide herself in. Octodev was looking around, his hand hovering over the button she presumed would fire off the electric current.

 

“Where did you go, little squid,” he grumbled, squinting as he searched for her.

 

It suddenly clicked and Agent 5 would have slapped herself if she could’ve. Of  _ course _ hiding was key! He’d never see her coming! She took a deep breath before jumping up out of the ink, quickly swapping her bombs as she heard him lock onto her. She threw out as many curling bombs as her tank would allow before diving back into the ink and swimming away to different spot. 

 

Octodev jumped in surprise and confusion when he realized that Agent 5 wasn’t there anymore, having gotten too distracted by the sudden appearance of the bombs to notice her escape. He couldn’t just discharge electricity across the entire floor, it would take too long to build up another shock if he did that, so he searched for her instead, watching for even the slightest ripple in the orange ink below.

 

Agent 5 wheezed as she heard him start to look around again, breathing a heavy sigh of relief that her plan hadn’t gotten her killed.

 

_ Okay. So you know that you can hide from him, but how do you like actually defeat him? _ She thought, carefully sticking her head out of ink to look around. She heard the awful crackle of electricity and tried not to scream as she ducked back into the ink and swam to a different place, thinking she had gotten found out, but when she didn’t hear anything else, she risked looking out again and found the true source of the noise.

 

_ Those two tentacles, of course! _

 

Agent 5 waited a few seconds before she revealed herself and charged toward the nearest of the two metal tentacles, her shoot firing ink at the contraption the entire time. Octodev didn’t even have time to properly react, caught completely off guard by her sudden appearance, and fumbled as he tried to press the button to shock her, but it was too late. Agent 5 drenched the tentacle in ink before chucking a bomb at it for good measure, causing it to completely corrode before collapsing in on itself. The force of the collapse blasted Agent 5 backwards, but she steadfastly stood her ground as her shoes left trails of burned rubber.

 

Octodev watched in horror as the electricity scorched back up and into his booth, crackling around his area before zapping  _ him _ instead, pulling a scream of absolute agony from him. He all but fell onto his button board, pushing himself up on his arms shakily and give Agent 5 a glare so cold it would cause hell itself to freeze over.

 

“You annoying little BRAT!”

 

Octodev cranked the current discharge up as high as it would go before he slammed his hand down on the button to fire. Agent 5 dove into the ink to get off and away from the floor panel she was standing on, but to her horrified surprise, the electricity shot out across a line of panels, only narrowly missing her.

 

_ SPLAT. ME. _ she mentally cursed at herself, wondering just how the heck she was gonna get to the other tentacle.

 

Octadev was on the prowl for her, slowly and carefully scanning every inch of the orange ink for a  _ single _ sign of Agent 5. That annoying little inkling was gonna  _ pay _ for what she’d done and her judgement was going to be  _ much _ worse than what he had originally intended. He was so caught up in his newfound disdain for Agent 5, he didn’t notice the subtle ripples in one of the ink trails leading to the other tentacle.

 

_It’s now or never, Fives._ _On the count of three. One...Two…_

 

Agent 5 leaped out of the link, shouting, “THREE!” at the top of her lungs as she began to wail on the other tentacle, shooting at it with everything she had and covering everywhere she could get. Octadev scrambled and jabbed the button down, but Agent 5 was quicker, diving into the ink and and running from the line of electricity before circling back to finish what she had started.

 

The tentacle, now covered in orange ink, corroded just like the other one before falling into itself and breaking apart. Octodev uselessly raised his arms to defend himself against the electricity, but the current shot back up and electrocuted him, pulling another scream of pain from his throat. He dropped to his knees, draping his upper half over the button board as smoke wafted from his body, but he didn’t remain down for long, weakly attempting to push himself back up again.

 

Agent 5’s headset buzzed to life, but that life was short lived as only bits and pieces of General Fishbones’ voice came rippling through.

 

“AGEN _ ZZZT _ IVE! SHOO _ ZZZZZZZT _ IM WIT _ ZZZZZT _ THIS!”

 

The headset went silent and Agent 5 turned to the sound of buzzing, her eyes widened as the small machine flew by and suddenly dropped a charger into her hands. She looked it over with a face one might compare to a young inkling receiving their first ever Squidmas present, adjusting it in her hands to get the proper grip before closing one eye and looking through the scope straight at Octodev.

 

“WOOMY!”

 

Agent 5 pulled the trigger and got Octodev dead in the chest, making him yelped as the orange ink hit him hard. He placed a hand over the new stain on his coat and staggered, ungracefully tripping over his coat and sending himself tumbling over the board and to the ground below.

 

Octodev hit the ground with a loud thump and a wheeze from his own person, but he quickly got to his feet, taking a wide stance that he wouldn’t admit was out of fear and panic. He was on the ground with Agent 5, sure, but he was still at least five times her height and just as threatening without his machines.

 

Without any warning or signal, Agent 5 ran at him, charger at the ready and primed with a shot she had intended to finish him off, but the moment she took one more step closer to him, electricity shot up her leg and sent her jumping backwards and falling to one knee.

 

“What…?”

 

“You really think I wouldn’t have modifications of my own? How juvenile.”

 

Agent 5 grunted and used the charger as leverage, standing back up and taking a few steps back. Octadev held his hands out to his sides a little, allowing purple ink to seep from his fingers and into the floor. The ground shook and rumbled, before several large tentacles crawled up from the ground and pointed dead at her.

 

“Oh, Great Kraken in the sky…”

 

Octodev clenched his hand and his eyes almost seemed to flash as he smiled at her. Agent 5 backed up a few more paces and gasped when the ground suddenly cracked, lifting into the air without her on it as she rushed away from the new floating platform. She looked over her shoulder at Octodev, nearly hyperventilating.

 

“Scared, young inkling? Good.” 

 

He raised his hand in the air and the tentacles followed the command, rising straight up.

 

_ “You should be!” _

The lab shook as he bellowed out, throwing his hand forward and sending the tentacles right at Agent 5.

 

“oooOOOOOOH SPLAT ME!!”

 

Agent 5 was luck enough to roll out of the way, but that was without the charger in her hands. One the tentacles struck it in an effort to swing at her and she shrieked as she watched it skid across the lab floor toward one of the holes the platforms had come out of, teetering on the edge.

 

“Hey! My boss gave me that!”

 

Agent 5 got to her feet and ran after the weapon, jumping and sliding under everything Octodev haphazardly threw at her, snatching up the weapon and whipping around, easing her finger on the trigger to charge a shot. Octodev swung a tentacle at her, making her jump back and release the trigger, losing all her charge.

 

“Darn. I need a higher place than this.”

 

But before she could figure out just what that higher place was going to be, Octodev wrapped one of his tentacles around her with a grip that was something short of punishing, raising her into the air and slowly clenching his fist. Agent 5 grunted and tried to keep it together, but soon she had to let go, allowing herself to be crushed into nothing by the tentacle.

 

Agent 5 wasted no time as she respawned, rushing out to the front of the high up ledge where the spawn panel and launchpad was and looking around frantically. That’s when her eyes landed on the floating platforms, noticing the faded pattern on them were similar to the small waves a launchpad produced when active. She looked at the charger currently strapped to her back before nodding to herself, becoming a squid so the launchpad would register and fire her back into the lab arena.

 

“And here I thought you had up and ran away, little inkling.”

 

“Oh, I’m still running.”

 

Agent 5 focused on the slight pulse from the platform immediately behind her and gave Octodev a smirk as she mentally locked onto it.

 

“Just not in the cowards sense.”

 

Agent 5 relished in the confused look on Octodev’s face before she activated her super jump and launched herself onto the platform above, taking aim immediately. She gently eased on the trigger, charging the sniper rifle as she stared at the surprised octoling through scope. She put more pressure on the trigger and fired, hitting him just as he raised his hand. Agent 5’s small victory was short lived as she took notice to the large shadow covering her and she turned around, eyes widening at the sight of one of the giant tentacles appearing behind her.

 

Just as Octodev brought his hand down, Agent 5 locked onto another platform and jumped there, only scarcely missing her as the tentacle came down and knocked the platform back into the ground. She was so petrified by the display that she almost didn’t notice another tentacle rising behind the platform she was behind now, but she caught sight of the shadow and once again managed to jump out of the way to another platform.

 

“Okay, okay. Don’t panic, Fives.”

 

Agent 5 aimed at Octodev and charged her shot, looking through the scope and firing at him again. Octodev screamed as the shot struck him, adding another stain to go with the other two orange marks on his coat. He couldn’t take much more of this. There was too much squid ink seeping into his system for him to be able to withstand another shot. Regardless, Octodev watched Agent 5 closely, trying to predict where she would land next.

 

Just as Agent 5 landed on a platform, she had to scrambled to jump to another one, shouting as the tentacle came down before she could even properly reform into a inkling. She skid as she clumsily landed on the other platform, taking aim as fast as she could and firing without truly getting herself together to send off a proper shot.

 

Octodev let out a roar of pain as the final shot struck him in the dead center of his chest, the octoling falling to his knees before buckling completely to lay on his side, panting. He looked up weakly as footsteps began to ring in his ears and suddenly there was the nozzle of a charger right between his eyes.

 

“Well? Finish what you’ve started.”

 

“Release the zapfish you’ve captured.”

 

Though he was glaring at her, Octodev weakly raised his hand and flicked his wrist, opening the five panels that contained the zapfish. One by one, they fell out, prompting Agent 5 to vault over the nearly lifeless body of Octodev to catch them. 

 

“Sssh, ssssh! I got you! I got you! It’s okay, it’s okay, I got you.”

 

The zapfish slowly calmed down in her arms, nuzzling up to her and relaxing. After they were all mostly settled, Agent 5 nodded and stepped around Octodev, walking passed him toward the exit launchpad.

 

“Aren’t….Aren’t you going to kill me…,” he asked bitterly between shaky breaths.

 

Agent 5 stopped in her tracks, slowly looking over her shoulder at him.

 

“It’s my job to retrieve zapfish from octolings like you. I don’t  _ have _ to kill you.”

 

Agent 5 turned back around and stepped onto the launchpad, firing out of the lab and back into Octo Canyon, leaving Octodev laying on the floor and looking after her with pure rage in his eyes. WIth the lack of zapfish to power his arena, the lights slowly began to fade, leaving only his eyes to glow in the resulting darkness.

 

_ “This isn’t over.” _


End file.
